These two lakes were going to be my main homes to start with. I first started fishing Redlands as it was the nicest of the venues; however the fish were not as abundant as they are in Southlake which was later to be the one which I focused on.

I joined the club in October and fished the winter on Redlands. The fishing was hard, mega hard. I didn’t see a fish until the following spring which was a small common. I was fishing with one of my mates Anthony Gee on a regular basis, all we managed were big slimy bream. We decided that we better have a look at the other main lake on the ticket. After getting to the lake which is located in the middle of a housing estate we were a little put off by the location. A main foot path circled the lake with an abundance of dog walkers and families walking around meant we would have plenty of company.

The lake its self was a different kettle of fish altogether though. Where Redlands was silt bowl this Southlake had features, bars islands, a duck pond area and nature reserve. It is 12acres in size and was only fishable from one side, the opposite bank was a night only bank which made most anglers stay on the opposite bank and cast across.

We had met a couple of the bailiffs whilst fishing Redlands and they had told us of the stock in Southlake and we were convinced that this was the place for us. With a dozen fish well over the 30lb and a outside chance of a 40 pounder we had to give it a go.

The first session resulted in a blank, not surprising though we knew nothing about the lake just going on small bit of information we had been given. The second visit was better for me, it was mid February and freezing, so cold that the water in my fishing buddies cup froze solid. I was fishing out into a channel in the middle of the lake with a small PVA bag and a snowman boilie setup. At around 2 am the middle rod bleeped, it was enough to wake me up but it was not really looking like a bite. I had my buzzers on the full sensitivity and I was sure they were just being affected by the wind, in my stupidity I switched the sounder box off with no intention of getting out of my warm sleeping bag and turning down the sensitivity. I just put my head back on the pillow when I heard this clicking sound, it took me a couple of seconds to realise what I had done but shining the head torch on my rods confirmed my suspicion, I was in. Jumping out of bed and hitting the rod I was met with a solid resistance, the fish plodded about in the lake for about 5 minutes until it went mental taking line from me in 20 yard chunks. Eventually I managed to get the net under a good fish but I was not prepared for what happened next. After getting my fishing buddy G out of bed and getting the mat and scales sorted I lifted the fish out of the water in the net, at this point G said it looks like a twenty, once I cleared the water I knew it was a lot bigger.

On the scales it went 37lb.6oz and a known fish Tear Drop. On my first couple of sessions I had caught the biggest known fish in the lake at that time in February one of the coldest months of the year.

I sacked the fish and hardly slept a wink for the rest of the night. A few mates came down to take the pictures but unfortunately I managed to reformat the digital camera and wiped all the best photos off. This being the best shot.

It was about this time that we bumped into a chap called Mark. Mark had fished the lake for 10 years and had had most of fish out at some time or another. Mark only fished days but was a font of never ending knowledge. As it happened I knew him vaguely through my older sister, as it turned out he was married to my sister’s best mate. We needed a plan and Mark was going to help us whether he knew it or not. You’ll see and read more about Mark success with Ocean Fresh he has had some cracking results.

A known carp called Cuttail for obvious reason caught by Mark weighing just over 31lb on Oily Crab boilies.

Tight Lines

Tim Athey